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Today when reading the morning headlines, I noticed the following three articles, all expressing skepticism about the current state of bitcoin growth - all from sources that have been typically fairly 'pro' bitcoin:

These all discuss a number of technical challenges to BitCoin and are all very well written and worth the read. However, not one of them mentions the single biggest thing to happen in BitCoin news this quarter, which is the statement from SEC Chairman Jay Clayton released as of this Monday, December 11, 2017, entitled:

Among the many questions swirling around the challenge to U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym's Order that Apple create software to bypass the iPhone passcode screen, a matter of paramount public interest may have been overlooked: Even if the government prevails in compelling Apple to bypass these iPhone security features: (A) evidence for use in a criminal trial obtained in this way will be challenged under the Daubert standard (described below) and the evidence may be held to be inadmissible at trial; and (B) the Daubert challenge may require disclosure of Apple's iPhone unlocking software to a number of third parties who would require access to it in order to bring the Daubert challenge and who may not secure the new software adequately. To state that neither consequence would be in the public interest would be an understatement in the extreme.

“Huge” number of Mac apps vulnerable to hijacking, and a fix is elusive | Ars Technica: Fellow researcher Simone Margaritelli has developed a technique that streamlines the attack by allowing it to work with the Metasploit exploit framework. He showed how he could exploit the vulnerability on a fully patched Mac running the latest version of the VLC Media Player. VLC developers released an update three days ago that patches the vulnerability so that the attack no longer works against the latest version.Patch your VLC, people:

As an interesting follow-on to Wired's article earlier today, see the this post by StackOverflow regarding its advertising policy:

But really: anything that doesn’t speak specifically to the Stack Overflow audience is not permitted. We also don’t accept rich media like animated ads, expandable ads, or video, which are the norm for most publishers today. This strict policy means we leave money on the table, but our team wants to protect Stack Overflow from those kinds of ads, as they run the risk of alienating that established trust.For those of you that don't know, StackOverflow is a forum where users go to post software development / programming questions and answers. It is one of the single most valuable resources available to any developer out there - I have used it more times than I care to count. To put it mildly, they have very high street cred, and this policy seems totally consistent with that reputation.

How WIRED Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking | WIRED: You can subscribe to a brand-new Ad-Free version of WIRED.com. For $1 a week, you will get complete access to our content, with no display advertising or ad tracking.The above article mentions that WIRED now allows you to easily whitelist its site, or, for $1 a week, you can have an ad-free viewing experience.

While I do not think this is a perfect solution, I think it is a huge step in the right direction, made in good faith. Importantly, it recognizes something so fundamental that so many other subscription services do not seem to grasp:

If I pay for a subscription, it must be both advertisement free and not track my data.

Any other stance is simply going to result in more users using ad-blockers or resorting to more aggressive forms of content-piracy. To be completely frank, it is why I do not, and will not, pay for Hulu.

This is super confusing to read from Techcrunch. Surely @anushublog is aware of the fact that Apple is not an OEM and is actually nowhere near vertically integrated? They are a design shop, and up until very recently, 100% of their manufacture was outsourced.

Additionally, one of Apple's core competencies is its software - iphoto is actually great. Apple Maps is not amazing - but certainly way better than it used to be. Apple's messenger app is great. Its mail app is great. Its video editing software (Final Cut Pro) and music editing software (Logic Pro) are actually industry standards.

This is pretty careless, IMO. Maybe the point is that Apple is bad at making social-media apps? Well, m…

The Internet Is Way Too Fragile and Insecure. Let's Build a New One
Featuring this: You may have had the bad luck of being stuck on a runway when a router failure in Utah grounded commercial flights around the country for several hours. Or maybe you were frustrated by not being able to access government websites the day the .gov domain administration had a glitch in its system. These minor mishaps over the past decade are early rumblings of an uncomfortable truth: The Internet is more fragile than it appears.
The problems with the .gov websites and the FAA were caused by accidents, but such accidents can have widespread effects. In 2008, censorship efforts by the government of Pakistan unintentionally caused YouTube to become inaccessible throughout the world. In another incident in 2010, much of the Internet was rerouted through China for a few hours, including traffic between US military sites. China Telecom plausibly claimed this was also an accident…

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I am not your attorney. The opinions expressed on this blog are solely the opinions of the author. Nothing on this blog constitutes legal advice, nor is it a substitute for legal advice. If you need legal advice, consult an attorney licensed to practice in your area.